Nantwich Restaurant Guide

This “atmospheric old pub” in rural Cheshire from the Chester-based Brunning and Price group is a “great” place to drop by for “nice food from a menu with a wide choice”. It’s a handsome red-brick building with plenty of exposed beams, and an attractive canopied garden.

“Slightly different comfort-food dishes” grace the menu at this “attractive gastropub” – with a “relaxed atmosphere” in an old school building. Steak ’n’ kidney pie is the pick of the main dishes, while the “excellent desserts” include an appropriately ‘Old School Ram Roly-Poly Pudding’. There are more than 300 gins behind the bar, along with a “good range of real ales”.

Stuart & Frances Collins opened in this cute market town in 2017, and have won it local renown as a “favourite” for a high-quality meal thanks to its “creative and excellent tasting menu and good quality wines” – ten courses for £100 per person.

“The food is something to shout about” at this “great country pub” that has served the village for more than 250 years – “it’s all cosy, warm fires in the winter and a great sunshine patio to catch the sun on a summer’s evening”. (“We class it as our local, but it’s more about food than a local pub, although it’s great to sit at the bar and chat to the friendly staff”).

2023 Review: “Theatrical presentation” is a longstanding feature of the Pear family’s stalwart fixture of four decades’ standing, whose ‘Dinner at 8’ package was an early adopter of the tasting menu format, with a 7-course menu delivered in a single sitting (you arrive at 7.30 pm). Fans say “Covid hasn't affected the consistent high quality of this unique dining venue. And to the famous ‘Dinner at 8’, can be added the growing popularity of their afternoon tea”: “a choice of gentleman’s or lady’s gives a useful mix of sweet and savoury, including the legendary homemade desserts. Ample portions (take-home boxes cheerfully provided), well served and a good range of teas''.

The now-national Brunning & Price chain made relaunching this very fine pub – owned by the Duke of Westminster and right by the gates to his Cheshire estate, Eaton Hall – their second project and very successful it has turned out. It remains a highly popular destination, aided by its fine interior and lovely garden with “lots of outdoor seating”. “The menu is reliable and varied, with something to suit all tastes and appetites. The staff are friendly, knowledgeable and eager to please”.

A sweetly named, capacious and “consistently good village pub with bedrooms” that dates back to the 19th-century and is handy if you’re scooting along the M6 in need of a fix. In addition to a “welcoming interior” (courtesy of a hefty £2.5 million renovation back in 2009), there’s a “wide-ranging menu” of pub classics with a “few imaginative edges” plus real ales from local microbreweries.

“A local’s delight” with a “great atmosphere” – this long-running trattoria offers “amazingly reasonably priced” Italian cooking, “prepared so consistently” by Roman-born chef Claudio Murru and served by his wife Jo, “who really cares that you enjoy your meal” (“we’ve been five times this year with different friends, and it met with universal approval”).

‘Heavy scran. Natural wine. Loud music’. Well, don’t say you weren’t warned if you visit this maximalist shop conversion in the heart of downtown Stoke, where – according to the posters on the wall – ‘The working class strikes back’ and ‘We hate the fucking government’. The menu of funky dumplings and other Asian dishes changes daily and an interesting drinks selection of low intervention vintages, fruit flavoured Soju and a variety of craft beers help it win local fans (from albeit limited reports) as “an all-round excellent favourite”. Not enough feedback yet for a full rating, but The Observer’s Jay Rayner fell in love with it on his September 2024 visit, including the “genius move” of his salted fried Mars Bar pudding…

Owner Gary Usher’s flair with crowd-funding and socials helped inspire lots of attention for his ‘first Elite Bistro pub’ when it opened in March 2023 in the leafy Cheshire countryside. Reports this year were somewhat limited and a little up-and-down (“we’ve been a few times, on the latest there were some hitches but the matter was sorted out quickly”). Overall, though, its “very flavourful” cuisine remains well-rated and “the place itself is divided into areas each with their own atmosphere, but all very pleasant”.

This “lovely old coaching inn” in a village of picturesque Tudor houses is a “real addition to a part of Shropshire not awash with good places to eat” and achieves an impressive level of feedback for somewhere out in the boonies. Owned by Sir Algernon Heber-Percy, who lives close by in Hodnet Hall (the kitchen garden supplies the vegetables to the inn); his son Tom was responsible for the inn’s “gorgeous makeover” a few years back. “The food covers fine dining to light lunches and afternoon tea” and all reports say it “functions well as a foodie pub while still catering as a bar for locals… one of the best around”.